I Love Cherry Blossoms!!!

April has been a pretty good month to me. It's FINALLY warmed up a little. It is still not a 'normal' Korean Spring. The weather is so this year, that the Koreans keep saying that the 'Earth is mad at us.' My boss and co-workers have all told me that they've NEVER seen weather so up and down like this. From Saturday, April 10th, the weather was so warm I could've layed out at the beach, Sunday was FREEZING, and then Tuesday it drizzled snow, then come this past Saturday, I was back in a t-shirt. The Korean weather predicitions are sooo unreliable as well so there is really no way to really tell what will happen.
Anyway, yes April has still been pretty good to me. Last weekend, I went to the Cherry Blossom festival in Gyeongju. It was soooo beautiful. I was very excited that my friends that I went with Lacey and Gillian were just as excited as I was and that they wanted to ride bikes along the lake too. We arrived Saturday evening. We found a cute little italian restaurant. The food was sooo good and the restaurant was one of the cutest restaurants I'd ever been to ever. My mother would've loved the ambiance there. It amazes me how little WATER the Koreans drink. At most restaurants they give you a tiny cup of water and for the Koreans that lasts all dinner. Us Westerners are either refilling ourselves constantly or the waitor is constantly refilling and refilling these tiny cups. The food was great. It was nice to have something different. Then we walked around the downtown area of Gyeongju. We did a little bit of shopping, and at one point were looking for a bar to grab a beer. We found, what we thought was a bar, it said Baccarat Bar. As soon as we walked in we saw a woman in a tiny dress singing live karaoke (live karaoke is rare here). We got pretty excited until one of the bartenders waved us over and told us that this was a 'karaoke bar.' We were a bit confused until we saw another woman come out in lace and we realized it was probably a STRIP CLUB! Ooops. We
ran out and opted for beers in our motel room. It was still a fun night.
Sunday, we grabbed breakfast at Paris Baguette (Korean bakery chain)
and figured out which bus we needed to take t go to Bomoon Lake Resort. I've heard a lot about this place and was excited to visit. We finally arrived, rented bikes ($8/day) and just rode our bikes around the Lake all day. It was beautiful!! We stopped for a few photo sessions along the way. It was a big overcast and pretty cold but still very scenic, and a good work out. The Cherry Blossoms were so gorgeous. I loved being surrounded by them. After the petals fell off, the floor looked like little patches of snow. Some of these photos may look like the path was empty, but a majority of our time was spent weaving in and out for crowds trying not to run over people (though some deserved it). The Ajumas amaze me sometimes (the old Korean women). Because Korea is a Confusious society, the old people have the highest reguard of respect. Now to a certain extent, this is a good way to think. Even in America, we give our seat on the bus to the older people, we help them across the street, etc. A common courtesy. However, the older people here, Ajumas (women) and Ajoshi (men), KNOW they are respected and know they have priority over everyone. They will push you out of the way, or if they know they're in their way, they won't move!! There are many people on the bike path, we have bells to rings as we weave in and out. You'd think if you heard someone saying "Shile Hamnida"--Excuse me in Korean, AND a bell, over , and over, and over and over again... you'd look behind to see where it's coming from and move to the side. Nope. Not even a flinch. No look back, nothing. Honestly, even getting yelled at would be an acknowledgement (yes they also yell at you for, Whatever sometimes). I wanted to run them over. They were pissing me off right and left. The younger people, the kids, the families, all so nice and smiling and yelling how beautiful we were, etc. The flip side is that every blue moon, you'll meet and Ajuma or Ajoshi on the subway/bus/train who is really sweet and nice and curious to learn about you.
ANYWAY, along the way, we saw a lot of interesting things. There are the pedal boats in the shapes of ducks and swans. If it was warmer out, we would've definitely done it. It looked fun. I saw this building (left) last time I was in Gyeongju and really liked it. The whole middle is cut out in the shape of a tower (famous tower statue in one of the temples). It just looks really cool. Right across from that was a little festival. We random ran into it. The first thing we noticed was the band...the same band as in Cheongdo for the Bullfighting Festival... they dress like women, and hobos with their faces painted. They're just wierd and I really don't understand it. But they took a liking to us (naturally the only foreigners around). They tried to get Lacey to karaoke but she decided to save it for another time. So we decided to sit on some steps and people watch.... while eating my corn dog and drinking coconut milk out of a coconut (which I had yet to see in Korea so it was a bit exciting). On our way back, we nearly died going into this little plaza area. There must've been hundreds of kids (though it doesn't look like it) on their little 4-wheeler motor bike thingies. There were so many!! I felt like it was bumper cars! We wound up walking our bikes through. Someone had to be the grown up. After surviving the kids, the ajumas, cold weather, and finished our bike path, we found this sign... Oops :) (no bikes). Ironic that his is the only location we saw this sign, and it was facing the opposite direction we were going...and there were a lot of other bikers on that path. We found it pretty funny.

As for adventures in the wonderful life of teacherhood, I've learned a lot about the Korean education system. My school is on the 4th floor of a building and apparently some of the kids were being naughty and spitting out of the windows. Someone came up and told us something. So the secretary, Angelina (who is sooo nice... but the kids are scared of her) called all the kids out of all the classes. They all sat in the lobby while she gave every single of them a lecture. I know it was a sad moment, but I had to take a picture. It doesn't look like many people here but there were probably 150 students there. They all look so sad and guilty! It wouldn't surprise me at all if it was some of my kids. But in this picture you can actually see many of my students. They're good kids... but still kids. ANOTHER example of them being kids is, last Friday, Angelina, the secretary started freaking out and laughing a lot. I couldn't understand what was happening. Apparently the kids were stuck in the elevator!!! At first everyone was a little freaked out. Then I was told that the kids were in the elevator, maybe 15 of them, and as it was headed to our floor, they decided to jump... stopping the elevator right before it reached us. My director, Ho and Angelina were talking to them for about an hour as they waited in the elevator for help. I went over to check it out and some of my students were there and were like "Hello Danielle Teacher. See you next time." I have a feeling they were thrilled to miss class :)

Well another month and another Temple event. This month we made Mandu (dumplings) and flower pancakes (for weeks, i thought it was FLOUR pancakes... until we made them and it is an actual FLOWER). I went early to listen to the Dharma Speaker again. I really enjoy going to the Dharma talks. I leave feeling good, like I went to church. Yet the message mostly consists about learning about a deeper part of yourself... not about changing your lifestyle, or how you're a bad person, or anything like that. Just finding the true you. Many of the Monks whom speak were raised in the US but now living (for SEVERAL years) in Korea.
After the talk, we went outside for cooking. It was beautiful outside. The area was covered in Cherry Blossoms that were just starting to fall. We cooked Mandu first. First order of business, washing your hands... Well the bathrooms in Korea usually only have
cold water and soap is limited. So I opted for rinsing and then using hand sanitizer (hand sanitizer's become my best friend here). Then we had to put on the proper cooking attire... apron and head piece. Now I officially look like a working Ajuma (you often see them cutting herbs on the street that they're trying to sell). They had already pre made the Mandu stuffing. Since we are a the Buddhist Temple, it is vegetarian. They do not eat meat. It had different cabbage, kimchi, tofu, and other veggies, i have no idea. We mixed it all together, and put it in flour skins. We got to shape them to different mandu shapes. Actually not that easy trying to keep it together. The foreigners all got creative with their shapes but were later told that the shape is very important... who knew?? We made tons of them and then while they were getting fried or steamed, we made the flower pancakes. They brought out pre made dough, we got to roll and flatten and put a pretty flower on it. Yes... made quite simple for us. The preparation for making the dough actually sounded difficult. The dough was actually made of rice (of course since EVERYTHING is made out of rice here). Once it is cooked, it turns into rice cake (squishy rice food... i've actually grown to like a lot. It's in just about everything). So pretty much we fry the rice dough, put a flower on it, and eat it with sugar... it was DELICIOUS!! And looks so pretty :) When we finished cooking, it started to drizzle a bit so it was perfect timing.

I'm still really enjoying the writing group I've joined. I go every Sunday (unless I'm on a weekend getaway). I was 'forced' to join Script frenzy. Script frenzy is a website that encourages writes to write a 100 page script in 30 days. There's no fee, no prize, just the satisfaction (and a congrats certificate) that you finished something. Many writers start but never finish. So this is just a way to encourage finishing. In November they do it with a Novel. April is a script. I don't know ANYTHING about writing a script. But I took it on. I am now halfway through and I'm up to page 52. :) The longest thing I've ever written and it is a good feeling. :)

Next weekend I have a trip to Seoul planned with Lacey and Gill. I'm very excited to visit Seoul. I hear so much about it. Also excited to visit my friend Derold, a friend of mine from College in San Diego whose also teaching there. It'll be nice to see a friend from home. But Seoul is more of like an NYC of Korea... so much to do and explore. So I'll keep you posted!